Big House Bunny
Big House Bunny is a 1948 Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny cartoon, released in 1950 and directed by Friz Freleng. Plot Needing to get away from hunters, Bugs digs a tunnel and accidentally winds up in Sing Song Prison (a clear reference to Sing Sing Prison). As he tries walking away, prison guard Yosemite Sam (here called Sam Schultz, presumably as a character role) beats Bugs with a billy club, telling him, "Trying to pull an escape, 777174, huh?" To which Bugs replies, "I'm not 777174 - I'm only 3 1/2." Sam finds this fine, and soon Bugs is in a prison uniform, breaking rocks, with the prison number "3 1/2" (as Bugs says, "Eh, my mother told me there'd be days like this.") When Sam tells Bugs he'll be in prison for 50 years (reasons not known), Bugs tries to make an escape, telling Sam that a different prisoner is escaping over the wall. Bugs puts his own ball which he's chained to in the cannon, which Sam fires, causing Bugs to leave. Sam chases after Bugs and brings him back. When Sam attempts to put Bugs into a jail cell, Bugs manages to pull a switch on Sam, by tricking him into thinking the outside of the cell is the inside, and vice versa. This results in Sam being locked up instead. When this ploy fails, Sam vows to place Bugs in solitary confinement for 99 years, to which Bugs replies "You wouldn't be so tough if you weren't wearing that uniform!" Sam takes the bait and doffs his jacket and cap, while Bugs, in striped prison tunic and hat, does the same. After a few fight gestures from Sam, Bugs concedes and dons Sam's guard uniform, leaving Sam to unthinkingly don the prison garb, at which point Bugs summons the guards and gets Sam locked up instead. Although now free to leave through his tunnel, Bugs is having too much fun to quit outsmarting Sam so soon, and, posing as a sympathetic guard, hands Sam an 'escape kit', complete with map and pickaxe. Sam winds up digging in a jungle and Sam starts walking through the jungle. as soon as he reachs the end of the jungle he sticks head out of the plants he hears a loud scream by the warden yelling "SCHULTZ! Just what is the meaning of this?" The scene cuts to the warden's office door yelling at Sam saying "I won't stand for anymore of your nonsense. Now get out! out!" Sam gets out of the warden's office and says "I hate him".Bugs walks around the prison, turns around and sees Sam running after him and runs away and bugs runs a scaffold and Bugs descends like an elevator and Sam tries to do the same thing but ends up being hanged and Sam yells in anger but then the warden yells "SCHULTZ! OFFICE!". The next scene starts with Sam walking into the warden's office but it's Bugs disguised as the warden and tells him to come in and offers him a cigar and tells him to pull up a chair and sit down. Sam pulls up the electric chair and Bugs tells him to have a light but Bugs pulls the switch that turns on the electric chair and Sam is electrocuted and Bugs takes the cigar out of his mouth but accidentally takes the fake mustache off, Sam notices takes a bat jumps on the desk and tries hit Bugs with it but misses and Bugs runs out of the office and Sam chases him but Bugs runs back into the office Sam runs into the office to and sees the real warden sitting in the desk but still thinks it's Bugs and Sam hits the warden on the head and a large lump grows on his head when he gets up Sam takes his hat off and knocks the lump back into his head and the scene cuts again to the warden's office and the warden says "I've had all the tomfoolery I'm taking from you! Quiet! One more slip you strudel-brained bonehead and you'll be looking for another job, now get out! OUT!" Sam walks out with purple eyes, he has finally had enough. He opens the door, yelling for Bugs to get out. With Bugs gone, Sam is delighted... until he hears the warden over the intercom, "SCHULTZ! OFFICE!" The next scene is of Sam in a prison uniform, breaking rocks, wondering who was the "stool pigeon" who squealed on him. We then see Bugs standing on a stool, acting like a pigeon and cooing as the cartoon ends. Gallery Availability *Laserdisc - Bugs Bunny: Winner by a Hare: 14 of Bugs Bunny's Best *DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1, Disc One Censorship * The entire scene of Bugs running up onto a gallows, pressing a button that lowers him like an elevator, and Sam Schultz doing the same, only to get hanged was cut when aired on Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Nickelodeon, ABC, and both the syndicated and the FOX version of The Merrie Melodies Show.http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-b.aspx ** The ABC version also cuts the part where Bugs (posing as the warden) offers Sam a cigar and a seat on the electric chair and pulls the lever that activates it. ** The Merrie Melodies Show version also edits out the part where after Sam is locked in one of the cells, Bugs poses as a crooked prison guard who gives Sam a prison escape kit and Sam tunnels his way out and into his boss' (the warden's) office. Notes While this cartoon was used in The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special, the gallows scene was drastically changed. References External links *Big House Bunny at SuperCartoons.net *Big House Bunny at B99.TV * Category:Looney Tunes shorts Category:Looney Tunes Category:Bugs Bunny shorts Category:Bugs Bunny Category:Yosemite Sam shorts Category:Yosemite Sam Category:Bugs and Sam shorts Category:Directed by Friz Freleng Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng Category:Story by Tedd Pierce Category:Written by Tedd Pierce Category:Cartoons written by Tedd Pierce Category:Animated by Virgil Ross Category:Animation by Virgil Ross Category:Cartoons animated by Virgil Ross Category:Animated by Arthur Davis Category:Animation by Arthur Davis Category:Cartoons animated by Arthur Davis Category:Animated by Gerry Chiniquy Category:Animation by Gerry Chiniquy Category:Cartoons animated by Gerry Chiniquy Category:Animated by Ken Champin Category:Animation by Ken Champin Category:Cartoons animated by Ken Champin Category:Layouts by Hawley Pratt Category:Cartoon layouts by Hawley Pratt Category:Backgrounds by Philip DeGuard Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Philip DeGuard Category:Film Editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects by Treg Brown Category:Voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Voices by Mel Blanc Category:Voice Characterizations by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons with voices by Mel Blanc Category:Music by Carl Stalling Category:Musical Direction by Carl Stalling Category:Cartoons with music by Carl Stalling Category:1950 Category:1950 films Category:1950 shorts Category:1950s shorts Category:1950s films Category:1950s